Doug
> It's a specious and self serving argument by SEIU. We in fact
> appeal to
> nurses as a professional association and as a union. We strongly
> work to
> protect and improve, obviously, their professional practice (more
> on that in
> a minute), but also their working conditions, wages, retirement,
> and we and
> our members support the rights of other health care employees.
>
> The California ratio law, for example, requires minimum staffing
> ratios for
> RNs; some hospitals have responded by laying off other nursing
> staff, we have
> consistently opposed and protested that and say it violates the
> intent and
> purpose of the law, which is a full team of caregivers needed for
> patient
> safety.
>
> We have also fought against hospital closures that hurt all health
> care
> workers, sponsored bills to protect whistleblower rights for all
> health care
> workers, opposed the ongoing efforts of hospitals in California to
> evade
> seismic repairs to their hospitals so they don't fall down on all
> hospital
> workers and patients as they have in the past. That is in marked
> contrast to
> SEIU which has signed deals with employers to erode and undermine
> the rights
> of their own members, much less public safety.
>
> We also support the unionization and rights of all health care
> workers, and
> have worked with other unions to help organize other workers, i.e.
> California's second largest private hospital, Long Beach Memorial,
> where we
> represent the RNs and helped the Steelworkers organize the other
> staff.
>
> Finally, a word on professional status for RNs. Under corporate
> medical care,
> all health care standards are under persistent, savage attack by the
> healthcare industry in its pursuit of profits. RNs are in a unique
> position
> to defend patient safety because of their legal obligation and
> rights to act
> in the interest of patients, not on behalf of their employer. That
> right is
> under constant attack by employers, but it is crucial to public
> safety.
>
> We further believe that unions only have the confidence and trust
> of the
> public when they are seen as having the same interests as the
> public not the
> narrow self interest of their employers. Part of protecting public
> safety is
> defending the ability of RNs to be able to protect patients through
> their
> legal professional role and their professional scope of practice.
>
> What RNs have found in many hospitals where they are part of SEIU
> is that
> since they are a minority of the bargaining unit they see SEIU
> ignoring their
> professional needs, and SEIU has also conspired with employers to
> erode RN
> practice and oppose bills to enhance public safety and the role of
> RNs (such
> as their opposition to the ratio law in California and a ratio bill in
> Massachusetts). Ignoring and sabotaging the needs of your members,
> not to
> mention the consequences for public safety, is hardly the
> progressive stance
> SEIU pretends it is advocating when they attack us for class snobbery.
>
> Charles Idelson
> Communications Director
> California Nurses Association
> National Nurses Organizing Committee
> www.calnurses.org
> Guaranteed Healthcare for All. For life.
> www.guaranteedhealthcare.org